My Slave Lake Trip #1

June 17-19, 2011

This past Friday was the first time I got to actually head all the way north, past the evac centers and barricades that were there, and go into the Town and MD. It was humbling. Seeing the hundreds of thousands of donations at the Edmonton Donation center, to the "old burn" from the fire that made my family evacuate as a child, to the burnt forest - the fire taking some homes, leaving others, and also the second guessing - wasn't there a house there, or a shed there? The trucks waiting to be unloaded at the warehouse for donations and the bags and boxes waiting to be unpacked. (please do not donate crap or un-usable items to ANY charities, you have no idea the MOUNTAIN of un-useable clothing, etc due to hygene reasons, its frankly gross. I am sure people meant well, but really, sometimes things need to be thrown out....Driving there it was wierd, you knew the fire was there, yet the grass and green has come in so much its hard to believe the inferno was only a month ago. I ran into a very nice fellow who handed me a metal bowl of things - pieces of his memories - the only things that were left of his home... And yet picking up these melted pieces of metal and gold I handled them as though they were a newborn, as this is what was left of his possessions, dug from the debris that was once his home.And than there is the parts on the highway where things look ok, but you know less than 100 meters back there is acres of burn... The fence-lines that were perfect than would suddenly disappear from view with a charred end showing where the fire took over. The stumps that got that puzzle-piece look of being burnt so bad and so through that there wasn't anything but coals left after the fire was put out. Remnants of the red fire retardant on signs, sidewalks and homes along the way. A deck that was still entact sitting next to a burnt holiday trailer; baby deer and mommas in the ditches who survived the infernos; a house standing while all trees and buildings next to it were burnt, but a holiday trailer next to it because a family cannot go into their home due to smoke damage; a man mowing his lawn next to burnt concrete and the remainder of his home; trailers and rvs in back yards where families camp in the back yards of friends and families; the glass doors of the library/town hall still standing when the rest of the building is down - so many unbelievable sights that you have to pinch yourself to remember that, yes, indeed - this is real....